Path to Greatness a Trainer's tale
by Renegade Zero
Summary: Follow a trainer in a dangerous world. With Mafia rockets, rivals that don't follow the rules, and not to mention the cry baby gym leaders, becoming a legendary trainer was never this hard before. R&R please


_**Disclaimer**: I don't own pokemon. So there._

**Chapter One**

Kelly lay on one of the pokecenters' couches as her pokemon recovered from the battle they'd been in last. As they healed, her mind slowly went over the past events. And she didn't like it. The guy had ambushed her as she left Bugsy's gym, challenging her to a battle she couldn't avoid. And proceeded to kick her pokemon into the ground with a lightning fast Sneasel.

Rolling onto her side, the young woman sighed, she would have to be more wary next time, so as to avoid that crimson haired youth. She was just drifting off into a nap when someone in the center turned the television on and it started to blare out the news.

Groaning a little, Kelly Gold forced herself into an upright position and let her arms fall onto the table, and her head onto them. She didn't care for the news now, not with how it rambled on about how Team Rocket had attacked this person, or how the police once again were baffled by how the rocket's kept escaping custody.

Yawning, the girl grumbled and hid her face in her arms. It wasn't that she was overly upset or even apathetic about the news. It was just this sort of thing was reported three times a day, atleast. So it was old. The Media should be helping the police by not interviewing witnesses or giving the names away.

But they never did so it wasn't unusual for people to suddenly disappear.

Sighing again, Kelly wondered how long it'd be before training pokemon became too dangerous for even her to ignore. For so far, Team Rocket had ignored small fry, and went after larger game. They were the reason Kangaskhan, Lapras, Chansey and a dozen other species were near extinct in the wild, and trainers with them or zoo's that had them put the pokemon under tight security and breeding programs.

Rumor had it they had placed Dratini and the Larvitar lines onto the list also.

And Kelly had always wanted the oh so cute Larvitar. Closing her eyes, she wondered if this nightmare would ever be over, and came to the sad conclusion it probably wouldn't. And the poaching the Rocket's did would slowly turn to more common species...

Kelly wondered if she was the only one that realised their world was slowly crumbling about them thanks to this foul and vile mafia of Rockets.

As she glanced up and looked at some fellow trainers with worry evident on their faces as a few glanced down at a pokeball in their hands, she guessed not.

Only, what were a few kids to a thousand strong force like Team Rocket?

_'The world is doomed,'_ Kelly thought gloomily as she let her head drop again.

She didn't move from the spot untill the Nurse Joy came over, greeted her and handed over Kelly's freshly healed pokemon while wishing a fare well, with a slightly worried gaze before heading over to a few other trainers that milled about, eyes glued to the tv or eachother as they talked rapidly.

Hooking the red and white spheres to a necklace she'd bought specially for holding pokeballs, Kelly stood up from her table and collected her things. She still wore a pokebelt, and there were pokeballs on it. But those were decoys, incase someone tried to steal them. Though it didn't work once people saw or realised where her pokemon really were.

But it made them a whole lot tougher to steal, especially when there seemed to be no lock on the near unbreakable chain.

Slinging her backpack on, Kelly adjusted the straps and headed out of the pokecenter. She had two badges now, and just needed six more. She was wondering if she should take on Whitney, but had heard the Gym Leader regulary refused to give out badges to the winners from a few people that had hung around the Gym in Violet City. So another gym had been set up it said, with a gym leader more willing to hand out badges. It was relatively new and unheard of. And it seemed the choice of pokemon there was Normal Types too.

While musing over the information she had, Kelly let a hand move to the pokeball on the middle of the charm necklace and pulled it off before maximizing it and pressing the button again. She was rewarded by a beam of red energy for her efforts, that struck the ground near her feet and bounced upwards then fell down in on itself, taking the shape of a pokemon before the red energy exploded outwards with any noise, leaving a dark blue, red spiked and black eyed little Totodile in it's wake.

"Todile!" Fang cried out cheerfully and waved at Kelly, seemingly having already forgotten about his loss in the battle earlier. Kelly gave him a small smile as she crouched down, offering the pokemon a cap. He cried his name out cheerfully again and snatched the cap, putting it on and puffing up his chest.

Snickering softly, Kelly scooped the pokemon up and allowed him to clamber onto her shoulder and cling to her head. "Seems I won't have to worry about you fretting over losses in the field then,"

"Dile," Fang said an nuzzled at his master's hair a moment before pausing and sneezing as a strang tickled his nose.

"Nice," came the dry mutter from Kelly as she continued to make her way through Azalea town and towards the forest, where the route to the next town lay. Fang gurggled his name and then burst forth into something that could be called a song, and Kelly could only shake her head mentally at how jolly her Totodile could be. Even in a loss he never seemed upset.

Letting him sing, Kelly let herself focus on the task of getting to, then through the forest, and wondered slightly if there were any pokemon of note in there to capture. Which really just meant a type she didn't already have.

Kelly didn't know what pokemon lived in Ilex forest, but she assumed it would have to be mostly bug and grass types. Though she could find something else. But the young woman wasn't expecting there to be a pokemon in there she'd want to capture. Bug and Grass just weren't her favorite pokemon or types. They weren't even near the list of types she could stand. Kelly was just not one for grass or bug types.

Coming to a stop at the entrance to the forest, she fiddled with Melody's pokeball on her necklace for a short time, letting her green eyes go over the deeper green foliage of the trees as the bark on them showed their age from the wears and tears of the life around them.

"Well Fang, it's now or never." She whispered out, the Totodile either didn't hear her, or was too lost absorbing in the same thing Kelly saw as the human started towards the forest, carefully putting one foot before the other. There was a legend that there was a guardian of the forest somewhere in there, that it was extremely powerfull, and if you weren't carefull, it could freeze time and send you backwards or forwards in it. Kelly wasn't one for folk tales usually, but deep down she admited that there had to be a reason Ilex Forest was still here, and relatively un disturbed. And she would rather not go about finding what started to legendary rumor about the forest.

And with the slow and steady steps she took, Kelly entered the forest, leaving Azalea town behind.

After the first few moments into the forest, the sunlight became so filtered by the leaves of the giant trees above, that it became as dark as night with a full moon. Which might be dark, but there was still enough light to see by, and aslong as she made sure not to wander out of the patches of light, she would be able to make her way through the forest.

It was slow going, and Kelly was starting to get a bit 'ew, nature' at times, but it helped that Fang was out with her, and able to warn her if there was something coming, like a Paras that'd been scuttling over a root of a tree. He'd snarled at it before launching a watergun at the target, sending the hermit crab like bug/grass type flying. Which Kelly was thankfull for as she did not like Paras, and absolutly loathed Parasect.

But outside that encounter, everything seemed to be going fine for Kelly. Aslong as you could ignore her grumblings and near rants about how she would never go near a forest ever again.

Though Kelly fell silent as she came to a small clearing, and spotted something unusual in it. And Fang saw it too, so she wasn't seeing things. It looked like a Stantler, only smaller, and bright pink and red. Gasping softly, Kelly thought '_It must be a shiny,'_ and she grinned, pulling an empty pokeball off of her belt and threw it.

The Stantler saw it too late, giving a small terrified bleat as it was a youngster, the pokemon only started to try and run away too late as the sphere struck it, and sucked it inside with little effort. The sphere shook a few times before stilling, and Kelly did a little dance as Fang gave a victory gurgle from her shoulder.

Quickly sprinting to the pokeball after she stopped dancing, Kelly snatched the sphere up and tapped the button twice to release the pokemon in all it's glory…

And stared in realisation at what she caught.

"ARG NO, NOT A **DITTO**!"

"Ditto dit."

"Un_faiiiiir_," Kelly whimpered as the pink goo like creature stared up at it's new master with bead like black eyes, a goofy smile on its face.

Fang patted his trainer on the head as he stared down at the newest partner to the team, feeling a tint of sympathy for his master. For who had ever heard of a Ditto ever being usefull?

The Ditto, feeling the human's angst, jellywalked, which is about the only way you can describe the shuffling flop slither motion they use to get about, onto a foot and hugged her leg. "Ditto!"

"Uuuh," Kelly shuddered out and grimaced as the Ditto enveloped her ankle. It was a gross, gross feeling, and it disturbed her greatly. And right about now, Kelly wouldn't mind being called a failur if she turned tail and ran back home. But the only reason she didn't was there was more forest behind her than ahead of her, and she was TIRED. And wanted to rest before she ran around again.

And the Ditto was still clutching at her leg and cooing.

"I hate my life," Kelly forced the whimper out past clenched teeth as she recalled the Ditto from around her ankle and shuddered again as the feeling of goo clinging to leg left her, and let Fang comfort her with another pat to her head and a soft "Dile, toto de," before starting forward once more, not wanting to stay in this forest incase anymore pokemon appeared to be Dittos when captured.

_End Chapter One_


End file.
